Africans countries defend Sudan at UN Human Rights Commission
KHARTOUM, Sudan, April 14, 2004 (PANA) — A group of African countries at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Commission are defending Sudan in a bid to block a resolution drafted by the European Union (EU) and other Western countries denouncing the east African country, according to Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail.
“The African group holds intensive meetings with the EU in order to reach to an agreement and to avoid confrontation with these countries,” Ismail said Wednesday in a statement issued here.
Last week Khartoum denied allegations by UN Under-Secretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland and human rights bodies that Arab militia groups, acting allegedly with the backing of the Sudanese government, were engaged in ethnic cleansing against Africans in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.
Ismail described the African group’s proposal as “logically acceptable and suitable”, but declined to comment on its contents.
“I believe we shall end at a position that will avoid a confrontation of the two groups… and we (Africans) do not want to arrive at this confrontation,” Ismail said.
The minister added that the Sudanese government was hopeful that the EU would “handle the issue with logic and more flexibility”.
Khartoum signed a 45-day ceasefire agreement 7 April in Chad with the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) after more than a year of intense fighting.
About 780,000 people have been displaced by the conflict in Darfur and some 100,000 have fled to eastern Chad.